Natural honey is a useful and important flavouring agent and possesses some medical and herbal benefits. Natural honey is becoming increasingly used in medicinal preparations, as well as food and beverage compositions. The stability of these compositions when comprising natural honey may be affected as a result of the constituents of the natural honey itself. For example, natural honey has been shown to have a starch (amylose and amylopectin) degradation effect due to the presence of amylase, an enzyme that cleaves the α1-4 linkage between glucose units (Babacan, S. et al, (2002) Honey Amylase Activity and Food Starch Degradation 67(5), pp 1625-1630).
The present inventors have found that when natural honey is used in a composition comprising a cellulosic polymer, as opposed to starch-based molecules, degradation of the cellulosic polymer can be observed. This degradation was not associated with amylase activity in the natural honey, as amylase does not impact cellulosic polymers to a significant extent. The present inventors identified the presence of cellulase enzymes in natural honey as the cause of the degradation of the cellulosic polymers. Cellulase is previously unreported as being present in natural honey. Although it is common to refer to mixture of compounds that can degrade cellulose as cellulase it is really composed of more than one enzymes, including β-1-4-glucanase and β-glucosidase (see the schematic below).

The use of natural honey in combination with cellulosic polymers resulted in a lack of stability of the final composition, generally identified as a loss of viscosity of the formulation. Therefore, a need exists for compositions and flavours comprising natural honey and methods of preparation such that, when used in combination with cellulosic polymers, the natural honey does not result in degradation of cellulosic polymers and subsequent compositional instability.